The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

May 2009

Just kidding, but it’s absolutely incredible how one loss can affect the morale of this die-hard fan.

I didn’t listen to the game; in fact, I haven’t listened to any part of a game since Tuesday night. But when I heard the score last night, my mood was instantly deflated. It was such a weird feeling. I was angry at the team and definitely disappointed. Later I found out the final score: 3-0. That made me even more bummed out. I knew we would probably only have a few hits.

I was probably bummed out mostly because of the simple fact that we lost. We just won a huge series in Arizona, and then we go to Colorado and lost the first game. Plus, it was a shut-out. That just doesn’t happen at Coors Field. I know we’re capable of winning the next two games, but that first loss was deflating.

The question is, why did we lose? Three reasons: we didn’t hit, we were in Colorado, and Kouz made an error.

Yes, my dear boy Koozie made an error that cost us two runs. It was a routine grounder that went right under his glove. It was terribly painful for me to watch. He was the last third baseman in all of baseball to have an error this season. His defense is definitely his best feature as a baseball player. I’m so proud of my boy for being as solid as he has been, but his error came at the wrong time.

I just found this picture. SO CUTE!!

Chris Young threw six innings, but only gave up one earned run. The other two were, of course, on Kouz’s error. We got six hits total in the game, but NO RUNS. The Rockies’ pitchers were so good. Tony Gwynn had two hits, but that about it.

Tonight is Josh Geer against Jason Hammel. The Padres need to get this win tonight. Just please, don’t wear the sand.

Yesterday was an off-day for the Padres, so there wasn’t much coming out of Padre-land. It was really nice to have an off-day. I didn’t really notice that there wasn’t a game, but I’m ready for one now. I think it was great for the whole team and the fans to get a little break.

There are probably going to be some moves before the game tonight. Cliff Floyd, the guy we signed for the bench in the off-season, will hopefully be finally joining the team today. He got hurt in Spring Training and has been working back ever since. Hopefully he will be able to stay healthy, and he will be a huge addition to the bench as a pinch-hitter. Also, we will have him back just in time for interleague, and he will be a solid DH, something we haven’t had in a long time. I know he will be a great influence in the clubhouse as well.

Of course, when a player joins the club, someone has to go down. It looks like Drew Macias is going to be the odd man out…again. He’s pretty much the only one with options. I feel bad for Drew, but I think he’s going to be in Portland soon.

Yesterday I found out that Heath Bell is going to do an online chat with the fans next Wednesday. So, if any of you have any questions for the major-league saves leader, I would love to submit them for you. Knowing Heath, it’s going to be a fun and funny chat.

So…Padres/Rockies tonight. Josh Geer will be pitching against Jason Marquis. It will be a very interesting series. The Padres are coming off four straight series wins, and the Rockies just got swept by the Dodgers, who are becoming increasingly annoying. They won again yesterday, pushing us to nine games behind. Why can’t the Dodgers start losing already??

We all know what happens when the Rockies and the Padres get together to play, especially at Coors. Strange things happen, and when you throw these in the mix

The Padres came back from a 7-1 deficit on Monday and won the game. They came back to get five runs but lost 6-5 on Tuesday night.

But on Wedensday, the momentum went right to the Padres from the very beginning of the game.

The feeling-muchas better Adrian Gonzalez was ready to play. And get back that just-miss of the night before. After David Eckstein’s single, Adrian hit his 18th homer of the season in the top of the first.

Jake threw 6.1 solid innings. He didn’t give anything up until the sixth, where he gave up three. He gave up one more in the seventh, and then was taken out of the game. It wasn’t his greatest outing (he allowed eight hits and struck out only five), but he was good enough to win. He has never done well at Chase Field, so we can use that excuse. But after the game, we found out that he pitched through a little ankle tendonitis. AHHHHHH!! Thankfully, it’s not that bad, and he was able to pitch. I think it bothered him as he worked deeper into the game, and that’s why he gave up the four runs near the end there.

He says he’ll be fine to pitch on Monday, but we’ll see. Hopefully he will get better soon!!

Anyways, in the sixth, the Padres added three more runs. Brian Giles tripled, then David Eckstein drove him in. Scott Hairston singled, Adrian singled in Eck, and Kouz sac-flied Scotty in.

In the eighth, we got three more. Eck walked, and Scotty laid down a sacrifice. The pitcher fielded it, threw to first, and down the right field line it went. Eck came all the way around to score, and Scotty ended up at third. Adrian and Kouz then walked. With the bases loaded, Chase walked to drive in a run. An out later, Henry Blanco drove in out eighth run.

Luke Gregerson and Edward Mujica threw well, but Greg Burke gave up his first run of the season in the ninth. That made it a save situation, so Heath Bell came in to save it. He got one out and his 14th save in 14th chances this year. We won 8-5!

So we took the rubber game and our fourth series in a row. We are now 24-23, still 8.5 games behind though. The Dodgers are not helping at all. They were supposed to fall apart without Manny! Now we’ve just won 11 out of our last 12 and we haven’t gained a game on the Dodgers!!! Veerrry frustrating.

You know what else is frustrating? Eric Byrnes. The dude looks really weird, and he keeps making really good plays against us. I feel really bad for Chris Burke. He was robbed, TWICE, by Byrnes.

Burkey is starting to get into a great hitting groove, but Byrnes was just robbing him. How rude! I think Burke really liked Chase Field. He’s been playing solid defense at shortstop, and as I said, he’s been getting his hits.

I was thinking this morning about how much these guys are a team. They have really bonded and are working together. David Eckstein gets a hit in the top of the first, and Adrian hits a home run to give Jake a lead. Jake holds down Arizona while his offense gets him plenty of runs. The defense behind him has been so solid. Whenever a runner gets on base, the players will do the little things like a sacrifice bunt. Scotty did that last night and ended up at third. They don’t give up, and they keep playing hard all through the game. This is truly a team.

The first five guys in the lineup had one, three, two, two, and one hits respectively. Even Jake got a hit! We had 11 hits total. We got five walks, and were 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

I don’t know what it is, but this team is really clicking right now. They’re working together and they are winning. I’m enjoying this. Who knows how long it will last?

Today the Padres have an off-day before playing the Rockies for three this weekend. Hmm…really hot team against really cold team. It’s going to be interesting. Josh Geer, Chris Young, and Chad Gaudin will probably be pitching.

We were completely held down by Arizona starter Max Scherzer. I’m telling you, this kid is good. He’s got some incredible stuff, and he was really fooling us. I mean, he got 10 strikeouts, and most of them were of our guys swinging at pitches in the dirt, high, or outside. He was very good.

In the eighth, the Padres started rallying. Well what do you know…

Chris Burke homered to start the inning. Tony Gwynn and David Eckstein singled, and Scott Hairston walked. The next batter was Kevin Kouzmanoff, who was promptly hit to drive in a run. Poor guy.

Chase Headley singled to drive in another run. While Drew Macias was batting, the pitcher threw a wild pitch and another run scored. Macias was then walked, and the sick Adrian Gonzalez came to the plate as a pitch-hitter.

Adrian came down with flu-like symptoms the night before the game, and was not able to play at the beginning of the game. But later on, he was starting to feel better, so he took some swings in the cage and told Buddy that he was available to pinch-hit.

The opportunity came, and there’s no one Padres fans would rather have out there than Adrian Gonzalez. And he just missed it. He hit it high and long to right field, but it was an out. ARGHHHHH!!! He was so close, but that was the last out of the inning.

In the ninth, we rallied again. Tony Gwynn and Brian Giles singled. Then David Eckstein, the poor guy, got hit to load the bases. But Scott Hairston grounded into a double play. Though we scored a run, that really killed us. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kouz had a seven-pitch at-bat. One of the foul balls that he hit was heartbreaking. If it had been fair, it would have tied the game. But it wasn’t good enough. ARGHHHHH!!!!!

He finally flew deep to right center field. I have seen so many balls fall into that hole in the past two games, but Young was able to make a spectacular catch to end the game. That should have fallen in. That should have scored the tying run and put the go-ahead run at second. Instead, it sealed our first loss since May 14th.

It was disappointing. But I am so proud of my boys. They bounced back after a 0-6 road trip, came home and played some amazing baseball, winning nine games. They back from a 7-1 deficit and won the game. And they fought back last night. These guys are playing some great baseball right now, and it’s not going to end. I believe that we’re going to keep winning. We’re going to win this game and this series tonight, and then after the off-day, we will see what we can do against the Rockies. We’re going to keep playing solid baseball, and we’re going to keep winning.

This is so much fun. We’re second in the NL West right now. We’re 8.5 games behind, but we’re in second place. Haha. I know we can do this. This team is so good right now!

Tonight Jake Peavy is starting. Automatic win. Well, not quite, but you feel REALLY good having Jake go out there in the rubber game. If we can get a few hits and a few runs to support Jake, we’re going to get the win. Simple as that.

Oh yeah – Billy Buckner is starting for the Diamondbacks. Have fun with that.

After a 9-0 homestand, the Padres went on the road with an 11-game road losing streak. Not good. As the Padres played the Diamondbacks yesterday, it looked like those road woes were back to haunt them.

Chad Gaudin started, throwing 5.1 innings, giving up seven runs on five hits. He also walked five. He was not that good.

Adrian Gonzalez got his 17th homer of the year in the fourth.

The fourth inning was when Gaudin gave up five innings, but the sixth inning was pretty bad too. With the bases loaded and one outs, Joe Thatcher came in to relieve Gaudin. The batter hit a ground ball to Adrian, who fired it home and Nick Hundley fired it back. But the umpire called the runner at home safe because Nick supposedly didn’t touch home. It didn’t help that the ump called the runner safe before he had touched home!!

I think the umpire made a mistake and Nick thought so too.

Buddy came out to talk and he was soon tossed as well.

The two ejectees walked slowly through the dugout and into the visitor’s clubhouse at Chase Field.

“I just don’t understand why he would call the runner safe when he hadn’t even touched the plate yet.” Buddy mused. “Reminds me of Game 163.”

Buddy flopped down on the uncomfortable couch in the clubhouse, starting absentmindedly at the TV showing the game.

Nick tossed his helmet on the ground. “I refuse to take a shower!”

Buddy glared at him. “Temper, temper. Perhaps you should go spend some time in the cages.”

Nick sat on the ground, still in his gear. “I think I’ll just watch the game, thank you. Hey, look, Thatch got out of the inning!”

The game went on, but Nick’s temper wasn’t cooling down. Finally, Buddy got tired of all his snapping and complaining.

“Nick, you need to cool down.” Buddy said, returning to his seat.

Nick shook the ice out of his hair. “Ahh, that’s cold!!”

Then he saw the TV. “Hey, look, I think the guys are making a comeback!”

And they were. With one out in the eighth, down 7-1, Scott Hairston doubled, sending David Eckstein to third. Adrian Gonzalez walked, then Kouz hit a single to drive in our second run. Henry Blanco drove in the third run. An out later, Drew Macias hit a three-run double, bringing the game into the Padres’ grasp, now only facing a one-run deficit.

Nick shrieked, jumping up and down excitedly.

In the ninth, Brian Giles doubled, David Eckstein moved him to third, and Scott Hairston doubled him in. The game was now tied.

This time, even Buddy had a smile on his face. “You think we can win this?”

Nick nodded enthusiastically. “Yes we can!”

Tony Gwynn Jr. sneaked into the clubhouse. “Psst. Buddy!”

Bud didn’t turn around. “What?”

“I know we’re not supposed to talk to you, but we have a question. Should we leave Burke in to pitch, or should we go with another guy?”

Buddy thought for a moment, looking totally engrossed in the commercials on TV. “Let’s go with Mujica.” he hissed.

In the bottom of the ninth, Edward Mujica struck out the side around a double and intentional walk.

“You got time for extras?” Nick asked, climbing onto the couch next to Buddy.

“Good thing it’s a day game.” Buddy commented.

In the top of the tenth, Henry Blanco singled. Chase Headley came to the plate.

Bud groaned. “Not Chase!”

Chase has been in a terrible slump.

After fouling off a pitch and taking a ball, Chase hit one deep to center…and it went over the fence for a two-run homer!!

Buddy and Nick leaped off the couch, cheering and high-fiving each other.

In the bottom of the inning, Heath Bell came into the game to get the save. Bud and Nick cheered through the whole time he was pitching. He got a strikeout, then the next batter popped out to Henry Blanco.

The last batter hit the first pitch to Adrian Gonzalez, who made a great play and tossed the ball to Heath on the cover.

PADRES WIN #10!!

I didn’t expect to win. I mean, once it was 7-1 in the eighth, it didn’t seem likely. I wasn’t giving up, but I was preparing myself for a loss. My boys proved me wrong, though. They showed that they can play on the road like they did at home, and they proved that they can win on the road.

What a team. We got eight runs in the last three innings to win 9-7. We got 13 hits and the five guys who pitched from the bullpen only gave up two hits. We are now 23-22. We’ve won 10 games in a row and counting. We’re still 7.5 games behind, but only because the Dodgers have kept winning. Very frustrating.

Man, it’s really cool to see my team on the front page of mlb.com. And we should be :) We’re on the longest winning streak of anyone in Major League Baseball.

By the way, I hate it when the dudes who do the recaps of the games don’t pronounce the players’ names right. Today, a guy pronounced “Macias” wrong – twice! So annoying. I’ve heard someone call Kouz “Kozmonroe”. How do you get that out of “Kouzmanoff”? Crazy.

Night at the Museum 2 was really good. It was hilarious! If you love history and want a good laugh, I would highly recommend this movie. I really enjoyed it :)

Well, tonight the Padres are going for #11. Kevin Correia, who has been very good in his last few starts, will be starting against Max Scherzer. I think we could sweep this. Especially with Jake going tomorrow. We’ll see…

I know I’ve used that title before, but it’s worth using again. These Padres are HOT right now, and I hope the heat of the desert will only warm them up even more. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

On Saturday, Josh Geer started and was excellent. He only allowed one run in 6.2 innings with no walks and seven strikeouts. It was great. He needed a solid outing and he got it.

On the offensive side, Brian Giles had a two-run double in the fourth, overtaking the Cubs’ 1-0 lead. In the seventh, we got an insurance run thanks to a balk and a Chris Burke RBI single.

Greg Burke, who hasn’t given up a run since coming up about a week ago, threw 0.1 inning, and Luke Gregerson threw a scoreless inning. Heath Bell had pitched four games in a row, so he was off-limits. Instead, Edward Mujica came in to get the save. He allowed two hits with no outs, making it interesting like Heath likes to. Then he got a 3-6 double play, and the runner at third stayed.

Then he ran the count to 3-2 on the next batter. Mujica REALLY likes to make it interesting! But then he got a third strike and we won our eighth game in a row!! WHEW!!

It was an amazing game, the win sealing the Padres’ third straight series win. They had the chance to sweep the Cubs the next day.

Chris Young started, throwing seven solid innings, only allowing four hits and a two-run homer to Reed Johnson. No walks and four strikeouts. I’m so proud of him. He had an excellent outing.

He also helped out at the plate. He had TWO hits, including a two RBI single to drive in the Padres’ first runs of the game. His average is now .333, and he has six hits on the season. GO CY!!

Also in the fifth, Josh Wilson was at third and David “Do-it-all” Eckstein was at the plate. He bunted, and Wilson raced to the plate. Ted Lilly fielded the ball, but tossed it over his catcher’s head and Wilson scored. The Padres pulled off the suicide squeeze! Well what do you know? It was very cool.

My baby Kouz had a big game. He had three spectacular catches. One was a dive into the stands next to a female fan who was getting too touchy. Another one was a line shot that surprised even him when he caught it. I’m not exactly sure what the third one was, but it was good.

He was also doing good things with the stick, getting two hits and four RBIs. In the sixth, he drove in a run with a double, and in the seventh, he hit a huge three-run homer! I was soooo excited! That made the game 7-2 Padres, and I knew we were going to win.

What a strong swing!! It’s so much fun to watch :)

After CY, Luke Gregerson and Greg Burke threw two scoreless innings together, and we won #9!!

I can hardly believe that we have win NINE in a row!! It’s pretty amazing. After an 0-6 road trip, we came home and sweept THREE teams, winning nine games. It’s incredible. This team has been playing unbelieveable baseball. We aren’t getting a ton of hits every night, but we’re getting just enough. And it doesn’t really matter because the pitching has been incredible. We held the Giants to four runs in the three-game series, and then held the Cubs to three runs in the three-game series. That is sooo cool!

I really give credit to the pitching and defense and baserunning this week. We made it work. I think it was really cool that the Padres went on this streak at home. I know it was a lot of fun for all the fans who came out in this streak, and there were some huge crowds. Yesterday we had 39,593!!

OK, funny story here. I was at a graduation party yesterday, and there was a bunch of teenage guys. My sister thought they looked kind of cool, so she tried to convince me to go see if they were Padres fans. None of them had any Padres gear on, so I didn’t believe that they were really die-hard Padres fans who I would be interested in talking to. But my sister made me go over to them, and she asked them if any of them were Padres fans. At least one of them were, and another was a Red Sox fan, which was pretty cool. I gave them my “Business” cards for my blog, but they probably thought they were too cool for me. It was so embarrasing, but hey, I was able to advertise my blog a bit.

So, if any of you guys are reading this, welcome to the blog!! Hehehe. Hope you enjoy it, and come back often!

I told my sister that I’m going to make her my publicity agent. I’m sure she’s going to make me go up to random guys, ask them if they’re Padres fans and give them my cards. Oh boy…

Speaking of my sister, I have to give her a shout-out. The Padres had fallen from her graces after the 2007 season (mostly because Marcus Giles left), but now she’s truly excited about this team. She doesn’t like to listen to the games, but I get to tell her about them afterwards. It thrills me to no end that she’s actually excited when I tell her that the Padres won :) Hopefully they will be able to draw her back in.

Well, the Padres have a little day-game action today against the Diamondbacks in Arizona. Chad Gaudin will go for his second win and the Padres’ tenth. I have full confidence in this team. We can do it.

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day! I’m going to go see Night at the Museum 2, so that will be a lot of fun.

You could tell from the very beginning that it was going to be a great game. The crowd of 27,260 was in it right away, and Jake Peavy, as a Padre, started it off with three strikeouts around two walks. It was great.

Jake threw six innings, giving up two hits and no runs, walking four and striking out 10 batters. He was definitely fired up, though after the game he said he was “emotionally drained”.

In the bottom of the first, we got our first run. This was Carlos Zambrano’s first start after being on the DL after a while, and he was not that sharp. We got the bases loaded against him in the bottom of the first, but we only got one run on a Brian Giles RBI sac-fly.

In the fifth, we got two more runs. Anthony Gywnn drove in Jake, who singled, and Brian Giles got a RBI single.

The bullpen was great. Luke Gregerson and Edward Mujica were able to throw a combined 2.2 scoreless innings.

In the bottom of the seventh, Adrian Gonzalez hit his 16th homer of the season, a solo shot. That was really great for Adrian. He hadn’t had a homer in quite a while, like a week, so he needed it.

Heath Bell came into the top of the ninth after Mujica got the bases loaded. Mujica actually had an at-bat in the bottom of the eighth and got a hit! He must be talking to Jake.

Heath was able to close the game and keep the Cubs from scoring, getting his 12th save of the season.

It was a really great game. The pitching was fantastic, and we got just enough offense. That was actually our first shutout of the year.

David Eckstein got hit in the right upper chest/shoulder area in the first inning. He fell to the ground, in terrible pain. He got up and went to first, but was taken out of the game in the next inning. He has a “chest contusion” and will hopefully get better soon. This guy is one of the grittiest players in baseball, and the Padres really need him. He’s been beat up pretty bad in the last few games, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t in the lineup tonight. He needs a break.

It was a great game. My family just started getting a weekend subscription to the Union-Tribune, so it was a lot of fun to read about the game during breakfast this morning. Newspapers are amazing :)

Tonight is Josh Geer against Randy Wells as the Padres go for a series win. It will be a very interesting game, but I think we can get #8. Why stop now? :)

Yesterday was the craziest day I’ve ever had as a Padres fan. It all started when I got the news that a trade was in place to send Jake Peavy to the White Sox. I kept checking the news all morning, but nothing was going on.

Around one in the afternoon, I found out that we got Anthony Gwynn Jr. That really shocked me. But we got him at a cost: we traded Jody Gerut to Milwaukee for him. I kind of feel sad about Jody. We gave him a chance to play last year after he went through a lot, and he really took advantage of that. He wasn’t playing the best this season so far, but I hope he will get a chance with Milwaukee. Goodbye, Jody!

Though I am slightly sad about Jody, we’ve got T. Gwynn Jr. now! The fans have been talking about possibly getting him for essentially his whole baseball career, so it’s really amazing to finally have him here. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m not exactly sure what the Padres’ plans for him are, but I think he’ll get to play.

Welcome to San Diego, Anthony!

Around four in the afternoon, I started listening to the Padres BP show on XX1090, the Padres’ flagship station. Naturally, they talked a lot about Jake and Anthony. It was really interesting to hear their opinions about Jake and why he’s being shopped and why this is a bad time and their overall thoughts about everything (the guys on the show are Darren Smith, Randy Jones, and Dave “Doc” Roberts).

Also around four, Jake gave a statement from the Padres dugout. Half an hour afterwards, they aired it on the radio.

“Right now, this is the best place for me and my family,” Peavy said.

And that was that. He said that it’s been a crazy 24 hours with all the rumors and stuff, but that this is where he needs to be right now. He did not take any questions, but he will answer the barrage that is sure to hit him tonight AFTER his start against the Cubs. He metioned that his buddy Roy and his family decided. That shows you how close Jake and Roy Oswalt really are. Those country boys are best friends, and it’s kind of cool that Jake brought him into the decision.

So, that was a relief. I’m sure that there are going to be more offers, and he still might get traded this season. But for now, for tonight, he’s ours. He’s going to get out there and pitch hard and try to get his team a win. I know he’s looking forward to pitching against Zambrano.

He said that he doesn’t want to be a distraction, but it kind of was. At least, before the game it was. There was a ton of media in the clubhouse before the game, and some of the guys were joking about how they were here because the Padres had won five straight. Then in the BP show, they were saying that there’s a rumor going around that the Giants are still in town and that there’s a game to be played or something.

In Buddy Black’s meeting with the media before the game, he got hit with essentially the same question over and over again: is this going to distract the players as they play this game? And Buddy got pretty frustrated, which is unusual. He kept having to say that these players are professionals, they know this is a business, and that they will not be distracted during the game. Sure, they’ll be talking about it, but they won’t be affected by it.

Apparently the White Sox were furious that news of this “deal” went public. It’s pretty amazing how news travels, though. Once the articles started leaking out, more and more people heard about it, bloggers got going about it, and rumors were flying all over the place. The guys on the BP show were speculating on who could have leaked the story, and they suggested the Padres. The Padres could have wanted to put some pressure on Jake and get him to make a decision, and they could have leaked it to make the Cubs, who are coming in tonight, a little jealous and ready to make a deal. That makes me feel sick about my front office, but it could have happened. The guys put forth some pretty convincing arguements.

I think it was terribly handled by the Padres. First of all, all this was horrible timing. The Padres were on a five-game winning streak, and they were going into the third game of a series, trying to get a sweep. I mean, why then? Why not the week before when we were in a six-game losing streak? It just doesn’t make sense. And I mean, we’re winning. We can win with Jake. So why would we try to get rid of him while this team is slowly getting better? Besides, the players that we were probably going to get back would be minor league prospects. What does that tell us? That tells us that the Padres are looking to the future. That tells us that they don’t really care about this season. Is that a good thing? I don’t know. Right now, this team looks like it will be pretty good for the rest of the season. But if we have a chance to trade our big players for guys that will help us in the future, is it worth it to waste this season for that?

I am so glad I’m not in that front office right now.

Well, I think that’s enough of that. I could probably go on and on about Jake and this crazy day, but I still have a big game to recap.

Kevin Correia started, and was excellent. He has definitely been getting into a groove, and is pitching very well. He went 6.1 innings, giving up six hits and one run (Aaron Rowand home run in the sixth) with NO walks! I am so excited for him. Walks have been one of his biggest problems, and it is so cool that he didn’t walk any.

The Padres got their first run on a David Eckstein single in the fourth. Tim Lincecum was good, but we were able to get a run off of him. He actually had 10 strikeouts, yikes!

Joe Thatcher, who must have had an arm transplant or something, threw 0.2 scoreless innings. Edward Mujica had a perfect inning with two strikeouts (yes, it’s true, Melissa!).

But the story of this game was really the ninth inning. In the top half, Heath Bell came into the tie game to try to hold the Giants down. For the first time this season, he struggled. He allowed four hits and the go-ahead run. Poor guy. That was the first run he allowed all season. He raised his ERA from 0.00 to 0.50.

So, down 2-1, the Padres went to the bottom of the ninth against Brian Wilson, one of the toughest closers in baseball. I was watching Gameday and talking to my boys.

Kouz came up to the plate first and was 0-fer, so I kept talking to my “baby” trying to get him to get a hit. And he did! That’s the way to do it, Kouz!!

Nick Hundley sac-bunted him to second, and then Anthony Gwynn made his debut for the Padres. It would have been so cool if he could get something like a game-winning hit (a home run perhaps), but he got walked. That was great though, ’cause it put the winning run on base.

Next, Edgar Gonzalez struck out. AHHHH!! I wasn’t too happy with him, especially since Brian Giles and his .161 batting average coming to the plate. But one thing Brian does exceptionally is take pitches and get walked, which is precisely what he did. So, now we have bases loaded with two outs, tying run on third and winning run on second. Hyun Young’s boy Eck came to the plate. All he needed was a single or so, but he really took one for the team.

The first pitch from Wilson hit Eck in the left elbow. It didn’t even look like it hurt. He just tossed his bat and trotted down to first, as Kouz ran home with the tying run.

Next, Scott “Walk-off” Hairston came to the plate. He took a called strike before lining a single to left, scoring Tony Gwynn himself. What a homecoming, huh?

This picture is really funny. First of all, that’s Everth Cabrera on the left, yeah the one with the broken hand. What I must ask is, why is he out there jumping and possibly injuring himself again? And then Kouz, he looks like his neck is broken!! I’ve noticed that the two baldys like to jump on each other. It’s pretty funny.

It was an excellent walk-off win and second straight SWEEP! Also, the Giants are 0-6 here at Petco Park so far this season. My Padres are HOT right now!!

Tonight we are playing the Cubs, with Jake against Zambrano. It’s going to be a very interesting game, and I bet it’s going to be a huge crowd.

Jake’s going to have soooo many questions after the game. I would love to be in that press conference.

My title is kind of ironic. We are on this huge winning streak, and I’m hoping that we won’t be losing a game soon. Of course, we still have a ton of players we could “lose”, but we survived almost losing our ace yesterday. If we can survive that, we can survive losing any other players, right? Except Kouz.

Oh yeah – the Latest Leaders came out yesterday. It sort of got lost in all the shuffle for me. I got #17, and that might be the best I have ever been. I think it is…so thank you so much for reading and supporting this blog. You guys are amazing! I’m not going to do a big dedication entry, but I’m going to dedicate this ranking to Tony Gwynn Jr. It works: Tony Gwynn Sr. was #19 for the whole time he was with the Padres. Now that number is retired, but the Padres gave Jr. #18 yesterday. I’m dedicating #17 to #18, our newest Padre.

Chad Gaudin didn’t get to pitch in Petco Park until last night. He’s been with us for about a month, but just always landed on the road, compiling an 0-3 record. But now that’s he’s pitched at Petco, I’m sure he can’t wait to do it again.

Gaudin gave up the Giants’ first and only run in the top of the second on a groundout by Emmanuel Burriss.

But in the bottom of that inning, the Padres came right back to tie the game. Chris Burke (who is really cute) hit a double to drive in Nick Hundley.

The game stayed tied until the fourth, when my baby Kouz came to the plate! On the first pitch, he hit a home run to left field. Yay!! That was his third of the year, and it was the winning run.

Gaudin went six innings, allowing one run but walking four. He did very well. The bullpen was excellent as well. Greg Burke threw his third scoreless inning since he’s been called up. Luke Gregerson had a scoreless inning, and the game was passed to Heath Bell.

Heath’s been amazing. He struck out the first batter he faced, then the second batter hit a high chopper right above Heath. Heath watched it, stuck out his hand and caught it barehanded, and threw a bullet to first base to get the speedy runner. It was an incredible play! Then he struck out the last batter, and got his 11th save in 11 chances and the Padres’ fifth win in a row.

We’ve been playing really well at home. Here’s a few of the Union-Tribune’s headlines this morning: “Streaking Pads can’t lose behind Kouz” and “Padres making themselves at home”. HAHAHA! Those are brilliant. But seriously, I think we’ve won 13 out of 19 at home. That’s pretty good!! And now we have the chance to sweep the Giants for the second time here.

Really shows how much coming home can help a team, huh? We were just finishing a six-game losing streak last week, and now we’re about to have a six-game winning streak! Baseball is so crazy.

I really wonder if this team is turning it around for good. Is this just a one-time thing, or are they really going to be this good for the rest of the year?

Last night, we only got four hits in the entire game: Kouz had two, and Burke had two. That was it. But the bullpen has been excellent, so as long as we have just enough, we’re good.

Tonight is Kevin Correia against Tim Linecum, though. This will be the second time he pitches against the Padres this season. Last time around, he was good, but he got the loss. Let’s see if he’s in better form this time around. Hey, he pitched that day that we finished the sweep of the Giants. Hmmm…

When I checked padres.com this morning, I saw the first headline and my heart sunk: Padres, White Sox talk Peavy – oh my goodness. I think I just died. I just went back to see what the headline was, and the Padres have agreed with the White Sox for a deal to trade Jake. Oh my goodness I am so going to die. Jake had better excercise his no-trade clause or I’m going to PANIC!!! Oh wait, I already am. I’m sorry Jen, but you can’t have him!! I am sooooo going to die. This is ridiculous!! The Padres are playing so well right now!! WE CANNOT TRADE HIM!!! oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness. Just what I needed. More heartbreak. Support group, this one might be worse than Trevor’s…oh my goodness…..I THINK I’M GOING TO PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HE MUST USE HIS NOOOOOOOO-TRADE CLAUSE!!! OR ELSE ME AND ALL THE PADRES FANS ARE GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From what I’m reading, the Padres and the White Sox have agreed to a deal. If Jake didn’t have the no-trade clause, he would be gone by now. But thankfully, he’s got that clause. Man, can you imagine what this guy is thinking right now? He’s got a wife and three young children, who are settled here in San Diego. They practically just moved here. He’s said that he wants to stay in the NL, but this would move him to the AL. He’d be going to a place that’s cold in the winter and doesn’t have the incredible weather like San Diego. He’d be going from a team that’s 10 games behind to a team that’s only 5.5 games behind. He’s got a huge fan base here, he’s been playing here for all his career. He believes that this team is going to get better. I don’t think it’s worth leaving. He’s gotta use the clause. He just has to, or I’m going to lock myself in my room for the next few weeks.

I just can’t take this. I’m dealing with enough right now. I don’t need this to deal with as well.

Trading him would be a huge mistake on the Padres part. HUGE mistake!!!!! YOU MUSN’T DO IT YOU CRAZY FRONT OFFICE PEOPLE!! Trading Jake is not going to get people in your stands. NOT AT ALLLLLLLL!!! Look what he just did. He threw his best outing of the year just last Sunday. WHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????

Once I hear anything, I’ll update. Unless he gets traded (which he won’t)…then I’ll be crying in my room…

Could have been worse, I guess. But trusting a pitching staff who had only recently been giving up more runs than Adrian Gonzalez scores with a 2-1 lead is kind of scary.

Especially when they put the lead batter on base. Every inning.

Chris Young did a great job, but every single inning for four innings, the leadoff batter got on. And four times, Chris pitched his way out of those situations.

Scott Hairston gave him a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a solo homer. Scotty hits the Giants incredibly well, though he insists that it’s just a coincidence.

In the second, Nick Hundley got in on the fun, hitting a solo homer to dead center, giving Chris a 2-0 lead.

In the top of the sixth, the Giants got their only run with a groundout. Rookie Greg Burke pitched a scoreless inning, striking out two.

Edward Mujica had a scoreless inning.

Then it was time for the Heath.

Only a few minutes before, Trevor saved his 10th game in 10 chances for the Brewers. Heath got two strikeouts and his 10th save in 10 chances. So, we won our fourth game in a row!

CY was kind of crazy, but he gave us six innings, allowing five hits and a run, and striking out six. He threw 100 pitches, and told Buddy that he was getting tired. It makes sense, since he was going crazy and having to work out of so many jams.

We didn’t hit that well, leaving eight on and only hitting 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. But the pitching was able to hold the lead.

Scott Hairston had two hits and two walks, and Nick Hundley had two. The only other hit we had was a single from Chris Young. Barry Zito was very good. He threw eight innings, and he kept us held down. Thankfully, we were able to get a few important hits off him.

The Giants defense was incredible. There were a few plays that flat out robbed our hitters. That was really tough. Rich Aurilia, Emmanuel Burriss, and Eugenio Velez had some incredible thefts.

It was a great win! We are still third in the NL West, still 10 games behind. But we’re winning :)

I am so proud of Trevor. It’s sad having him gone, I really still can’t believe it, but he’s doing really well. Trevor and Heath are almost matching each other step for step. They both have ten saves in ten chances, and their ERAs are both 0.00. Trevor’s amazing. So is Heath. It’s so cool that these guys are matching each other. We miss you Trev!!!

Tonight is Chad Gaudin, who is still looking for his first win, against Jonathan Sanchez.

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